BCL-6 is a zing finger protein that acts as a sequence-specific transcriptional repressor, binding to DNA with its amino-terminal Pox virus zinc finger (POZ) domain. Bcl-6 is frequently deregulated in non-Hodgkin lymphomas. The altered expression of Bcl-6 arises mostly from 3q27 translocations, in which the 5′ non-coding region is replaced by a heterologous promoter, leading to over-expression of the protein.
The term “lymphoma” encompasses more than 40 related types of cancer that develop from lymphocytes (cells of the immune system). Lymphoma arises when one of these cells undergoes a transformation into a malignant cell and begins to grow abnormally, dividing and forming tumors. Lymphomas are divided into two general types: Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.